Canon DSLR 1:1 Pixel Resolution

Ideally, for cutting-edge high-resolution planetary photography, we would like to be able to shoot at 1:1 pixel resolution.

This means that the detail produced by one pixel in the sensor in the camera is reproduced to one pixel in the final image.

I’ve just posted an article entitled Canon DSLR 1:1 Pixel Resolution to my web site with a list of which Canon cameras produce 1:1 pixel resolution, and how to test for it.

If your camera doesn’t shoot exactly 1:1 pixel resolution, don’t worry about it. Recording Live View at 5x magnification usually gets you very close to it, and you can do some great planetary work.

For still images, a DSLR camera used at full resolution will produce exactly 1:1 pixel resolution.

But with video, which we use for “Lucky” imaging with planetary photography, the so-called “high-definition” video modes do not produce anything close to 1:1 pixel resolution.

This is because the full resolution of the sensor, such as the 5184 x 3456 pixels in the 60D, 60Da and T2i (550D) must be downsampled to 1920 x 1080 pixels for 1080p high-definition video. This may be “high-definition” for video, but it trashes really fine planetary detail. That is why getting as close to 1:1 pixel resolution is important for high-resolution planetary photography.

If you don’t have a camera like the 60Da, 60D or T2i (550D) that can shoot 640×480 Movie Crop Mode, which does produce 1:1 pixel resolution, you can still achieve that goal, or something very close to it, by recording Live View at 5x with software to a computer.

Heck, you can even use a camera like the 1000D, that doesn’t shoot video at all, to record Live View at 5x to record a video for “Lucky” planetary imaging at 1:1 or very close to 1:1, pixel resolution.

“Lucky” imaging means we shoot a lot of frames in a video, and use special software to pick out the best ones with the best seeing, and then stack those for further sharpening.